Getting logged out of IE

I have been fiddling with IE8- I have no idea why as I love Firefox and also have screaming fast versions of Opera and Chrome also on this box. But whatever.

Every time I launch IE, (it should go to Yahoo,) I see I am signed out. I noticed the box for clear settings is checked. I am assuming that would do it, so I have unchecked it.

Is there a setting to just 'clear history, etc' and leave the cookies alone?

On your diagram which you have kindly provided there is a check box that says

Delete browsing history on exit

Click to expand...

you can check that box. This will delet your browsing history each time you exit Internet Explorer.
Another way (looking at your photo diagram again) is to click the Delete button. This will not suddenly delete everything but offer you a pop up box with all the options of what you might want to delete. You can then untick every item except for History and then click Delete on that box.

ok, yeah i have it set like that. doesn't explain, then, how i get signed out of cookied sites on IE. Hmmmm.